Invictus tells hedge funds it expects major decrease in Tier 1 capital for most banks

Opalesque Industry Update – US Financials have struggled throughout 2011 as the end of quantitative easing came into sight, and economic growth has stalled. For hedge funds this represents possible exposure problems not only through investments, but also through possible counterparty risk with partner banks. With the shadow still cast by the massive problems hedge funds had with UK-based Lehman prime brokerage accounts, bank stress testing has taken on a whole new level of importance.

On Tuesday, Invictus Group announced that it was making available to hedge fund clients a stress testing methodology that helps hedge funds access forward looking US bank stress test information to help managers determine the valuation of financial stocks.

"Hedge funds rely on complex algorithms that, in turn, depend on public data to value their bank stock holdings. The problem, we have found, is that the source data for these algorithms, particularly the key ones of capital and earnings, are incorrect as generally presented and must be adjusted on a correct and consistent basis across all the banks to make the data useful. Our proprietary methodology provides the means to do this accurately, efficiently and quickly," said Kamal Mustafa, Chairman and CEO of Invictus. Invictus says that backtesting of the firm’s offering shows it predicted every bank failure in the US since September 2008 in which the institution did not receive a capital injection.

The firm’s most recent stress testing of financials revealed that (as of March 31, 2011 data):
71% of banks will see a decline in Tier 1 capital, and 23% will find Tier 1 capital levels falling below 8%. 6% of banks will experience a significant (80%) decline in Tier 1 capital.

Of those banks listed on the NYSE/AMEX/NASDAQ:
-- 12% with price/tangible book value of less than the mean of 1.09 will see increases to Tier 1 capital

-- 19% with price/tangible book value in excess of 1.09 will experience decreases to Tier 1 capital

The analysis also shows a substantial difference between banks traded on NYSE/AMEX/NASDAQ and on the pink sheets:
-- 63% of the NYSE/AMEX/NASDAQ banks will have a decline in capital, versus 76% of the pink sheet banks

-- Of the 60 banks showing an 80% or more decline in capital, only 9 are on NYSE/AMEX/NASDAQ, but 51 are on pink sheets